Partridge Nest Farm

Wanders into Sleights village should be first on the list for a lazy day from Partridge Nest Farm, for a poke around its antique shop or a pint in one of its pubs; the village also has a train station and is on the Coastliner and Arriva bus routes. A couple of riverside cafés as well as boating on the River Esk (from April to October) are two and a half miles from Sleights. A mile and a half from the farm is Grosmont, where the North Yorkshire Moors Railway terminates on its way north from Pickering. The railway's old engine shed and the world's oldest passenger railway tunnel (built by railway George Stephenson, trainspotters) are here to have a nosy at, before a trip on the train's 18-mile puff through spectacular moors scenery to Pickering via Goathland. Five miles from the farm is the seaside resort of Whitby, rightly popular around the country (world) for its Dracula association, excellent Whitby Abbey and its connections with Captain Cook, who learned the ropes of his sailing trade in the town. Both the Captain Cook Memorial Museum and the replica of HMS Endeavour are very much worth a look in Whitby for nautical sorts; if your tastes are more Gothic, take the Dracula night walk, or turn up just before Halloween for one of the two annual Whitby Goth Weekends or the yearly International Bram Stoker Film Festival.